Books in the Literature and Philosophy series

An exploration of the philosophical and rhetorical implications of William Wordsworth's desire for language to be an "incarnation" of thought. This book concentrates on familiar Wordsworthian texts such as "The Prelude" and also on less frequently read texts such as "The Excursion".

This text presents a revisionist interpretation of Emerson's philosophical discourse placing him at the juncture of modernism and postmodernism in the Western philosophical tradition.

The category of the aesthetic has been accused of promoting class-based ideologies of distinction, of cultivating political apathy, and of indulging irrational sensuous decadence. This work re-examines the history of aesthetic theorizing that has led to this critical alienation from works of art.